Emanuel: Tightening of Pa. race to be expected

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Sunday dismissed the idea that President Obama is vulnerable in Pennsylvania, where polls have tightened ahead of Tuesday’s election.

The mayor, a former White House chief of staff who is one of the president’s most outspoken advocates, said the Obama campaign is confident in Pennsylvania despite the narrowing lead.

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“I think Pennsylvania is secure, but you don’t take anything for granted,” Mr. Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Obama campaign is sending former President Bill Clinton to campaign in Pennsylvania on Monday, but Mr. Emmanuel played down that move as well.

“That doesn’t mean that it’s slipping. It just means that’s the natural tiding of a race,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of people going back to Ohio in the (final) 96 hours, multiple times.”

Mr. Obama won the state by 10 percentage points in 2008, but a Franklin and Marshall College poll released last week showed the president’s lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney at 49 percent to 45 percent — within the poll’s margin of error.

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About the Author

David Eldridge joined The Washington Times in 1999 and over the next seven years helped lead the paper’s coverage of regional politics and government, Sept. 11, and the sniper attacks of 2002. In 2006, he was named managing editor of the paper’s website before moving on to editing and reporting stints at Roll Call, the Hill and InsideSources. He returned ...